Research

Research at the CBC focuses on understanding behaviour change and applying that understanding to addressing real world problems. These include health-related topics such as smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, diabetes and weight management, and others such as cybersecurity, transport and pro-environmental behaviours. We also conduct research aimed at advancing theories of behaviour change and methods for studying it.

Selected current Research Projects – Applied

City4Age – Elderly-friendly city services for active and healthy ageing

Funder: EU Horizon2020

To reduce the economical and personal impact of the ageing population, 16 partners including engineers, computer scientists, city planners, and public sector representatives from seven European countries have been brought together to develop digital tools aimed at prolonging independent living in older age. With a specific focus on Mild Cognitive Impairment and Frailty, City4Age seeks to exploit the new possibilities arising from smart devices and the Internet of Things to both monitor and change health relevant behaviours in older adults. The UCL Centre for Behaviour Change is providing the behavioural science input for this project focusing on technical solutions for detecting and changing behaviours relevant to mild cognitive impairment and physical frailty.

Developing and testing the DAFNEplus intervention

Funder: NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research

DAFNE (Dose Adjustment For Normal Eating) is a 5-day, group based training course for adults with Type 1 diabetes which has now been delivered to over 30,000 adults in the UK. The aim of DAFNEplus is to develop and convert DAFNE into a lifelong package to help people better manage their blood glucose levels long-term, as high levels can cause dangerous complications. Our recent research confirmed that after attending a DAFNE course, people have better quality of life, better glucose levels (in the short-term) and are admitted to hospital less often for diabetes emergencies. Although participants find DAFNE training useful, some find it difficult to continually implement the skills needed to maintain glucose levels to prevent diabetic complications. After the course, people also find it difficult to get support from health professionals. This work will help us develop better training for other groups (especially children and young people).

Selected current Research Projects – Theoretical

The Human Behaviour-Change Project: Building the science of behaviour change for complex intervention development

Funder: Wellcome Trust

Human behaviour needs radical change
to protect our individual and collective well-being. To achieve this, we need
to develop more effective behaviour change interventions, tailored to the
behaviour, population and setting. The Human Behaviour-Change Project will
build an Artificial Intelligence system to continually scan the world
literature on behaviour change, extract key information, and use this to build
and update a model of human behaviour to answer the big question:

‘What
behaviour change interventions work, how well, for whom, in what setting, for
what behaviours and why?’

Behaviour Change Theories

A multidisciplinary literature review across the fields of psychology, sociology, economics and anthropology identified 83 theories of behaviour and behaviour change (Davis, Campbell, Hildon, Hobbs & Michie, 2014). These theories contained a total of 1725 constructs. Descriptions of each of these theories have been published as a compendium of behaviour change theories to provide a resource for researchers, policy makers and intervention designers (www.behaviourchangetheories.com; Michie, West, Campbell, Brown & Gainforth, 2014). Many of these theories showed considerable overlap with each other, and most were partial and/or underspecified.A study, which aims to complete in 2017, has specified all 83 theories in terms of constructs and one of 14 relationships between those theories in such a way that they can be coded computationally. The aim is to use computational methods to create one or more ‘canonical’ theories representing the most commonly identified constructs and relationships.

Connect with us

Links to other organisations

BehaviourWorks Australia (BWA)

A leading behaviour change research enterprise within the Monash Sustainable Development Institute at Monash University in Melbourne. BWA is Australia's largest applied behaviour change research unit, connecting leading behaviour change researchers with government and industry practitioners to translate evidence into practice. Visit: www.behaviourworksaustralia.org

Centre for Implementation Research, Ottawa Health Research Institute

The Centre for Implementation Research (CIR) focuses on developing and applying Implementation Science in health-care settings to improve health-care and health. Visit: www.ohri.ca/cir/